Leona`s Expansion Grows Unexpectedly

October 02, 1987|By Jay Pridmore.

Her sleepy smile turned to a desperate grimace when we suggested we`d like to order. We got through this step, but when the food came, it tasted as if the cook had been at the same party as our waitress. Later, when we asked for the check, the waitress nearly panicked. We asked her to sit down and relax. She did.

Poor performances are not isolated. At a new, rather glittery West Side restaurant, we were greeted by a waitress who did not speak English. She spoke Russian, Polish and Italian, we were told, but we discovered that her Italian was not much to brag about.

The dishes that arrived at our table bore little resemblance to anything that we ordered. We would have eaten them had they been edible, but they were not. Nor were the dishes we ordered very good when they finally came. We never had a chance to discuss this with our waitress, because she pretty much turned our table over to the busboy.

``How was the food?`` he asked cheerfully.

``Not good,`` we told him, without rancor.

``Nothing to brag about, huh?`` he said.

``By no means should you brag about this food.``

When he brought coffee he said he mentioned our feelings to the chef. The chef blamed him. ``Can you believe it?`` the busboy said. ``Then he told me I did the same thing last night.``